Things Finally Moving Forward

This past week at my school they had special classes for the parents of the students which meant in some cases that I had longer classes than usual which also meant I had no breaks during the day. Although teaching from 3:50 to 10:10 might not sound like a long time it certainly feels like a long time when you have no breaks at all.Thankfully the week is over and now the schedule goes back to normal.

Even though I only see each class once a week I am happy now that I am slowly starting to remember some of the sudent names in each class. Thankfully, they all have English nicknames. I saw one of my students before class on Monday drinking coffee. She came up to me and asked me "Teacher, do you like coffee?

I told her " I might drink coffee 4 or maybe 5 times a year". She then told me that she drinks coffee everyday because she loves it. The thing is she's only 10 years old. I guess on the bright side it was cream coffee and not black coffee.

Finally, went for the health check early Wednesday afternoon. Regulations have certainly changed as now you have to go to designated hospitals and instead of about 50,000 won they now cost 140,000 won. As a rough guide 1000 won is about a dollar. After the eye test, blood test, and urine test they now send you to a dentist as well for a quick look and it turned out I had two small superficial cavities which I took care yesterday. Everything came back fine but I have to wait until Tuesday for the results of the blood test. After I get that back then it's off to immigration to register and get the ARC (Alien Registration Card) and then I truly become legal and can then set up a bank account.

I saw the dentist on Friday morning. They took an x-ray and took care of the cavities and the total cost was 28,800 won about $28. If I had health insurance which I can't get yet until I get my ARC it would have been even cheaper. I'm supposed to finally get the apartment set up for a phone today. I wasn't really looking forward to hanging around the apartment on a Saturday but it's raining here again today so I wouldn't have gone anywhere anyway.

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny so I'm going to head to Suwon tomorrow and check out the Hwaseong Fortress so expect some more pictures soon.

Choenan Dude

Finally in Choenan

Sometimes it felt like I was never going to get here but finally arrived in Choenan on May 3rd after flying for about 21 hours on Air Canada and then a two hour bus ride from the Incheon airport to Choenan. Flying from Newfoundland certainly does suck. My plane had to get its wings de-iced in St. John's before we even took off for Toronto. A wonderful delay of about 40 minutes and I'll give three guesses as to whose luggage didn't show up in Incheon as a result of this and the first two don't count.

On the positive side at least I did make all of my connections. My boss picked me up in Choenan and brought me to my apartment on Tuesday night at about 7:30 pm. I had trouble sleeping for the first few nights as there is about a 12 hour difference between Korea and Newfoundland meaning your body is telling you you should be awake when you're asleep and you should be asleep when you're awake. The school is great so far and I actually have my own classroom for the first time ever. On Monday - Wednesday-Friday I work from 3:50pm to 10:10 pm, Tuesday 5:30pm to 7:10pm and Thursday 4:30pm to 8:40pm.

Now that I've finally got reimbursed for airfare I'm really looking forward to exploring a whole new area of Korea. Choenan is part of the Seoul subway system and is also a part of both KTX lines so there are plenty of travel options. Stay tuned for more pictures and posts as my Choenan life moves forward.

Choenan Dude